Detail

Olin Hall

Building Description:

Olin Hall was built in 1980-81. It was named in honor of John M. Olin, chairman of the Olin Mathieson Chemical Co., whose foundation provided the funds for the building. Olin, who invented the plastic shotgun shell now in common use, was a trustee of the university from 1953 to 1974. Also immortalized here is German-American physicist Walter M. Elsasser, who originally proposed the theory that Earth's magnetic field was a result of induced electric currents in Earth's fluid outer core. His studies led him to discover that Earth's magnetic field orientation history is embedded in rocks. Fittingly, Olin Hall houses academic, administrative, and laboratory space for the Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) and Global Environmental Change and Sustainabiliy (GECS).